Hacker News: benbayard

New comment by benbayard in "A powerful new chapter for Windows PCs, accelerated by Nvidia RTX Spark"

benbayard — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:50:09 +0000

An M5 pro max with 128gb of RAM is $5200 so I’d expect some kind of price in that range.

I imagine it’s for AI researchers, professionals who work with models. Software engineers who want local models instead of cloud models.

To be honest, I don’t think it’ll be very popular with those demographics. But I think a company like Microsoft investing in local AI is a good thing.

New comment by benbayard in "Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR"

benbayard — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 20:34:50 +0000

Interesting, maybe it just doesn't bother me, because I do not notice it at all. I was looking at black text on a white background. Maybe it's less of an impact on Q-OLEDs with their pixel layout perhaps? I just checked and I actually run my ultra-wide monitor at 125% resolution and the text looks crisp. That one is a regular LED display but it does have really high pixel density (5120 x 2160, I run it at 3360x1418)

New comment by benbayard in "MacBook Air with M5"

benbayard — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 20:32:27 +0000

Yes, totally. By introduced I didn't mean they were the first in the space but rather they have introduced it to the laptops they're shipping now. But yes, it's been a thing for awhile on other architectures as well.

New comment by benbayard in "Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR"

benbayard — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:25:57 +0000

I just tested on my 4k display and 150% and 175% were not blurry at all. I'm on a 32 inch 4k monitor. Is it possible this information is out of date and was fixed by more recent versions of macos?

New comment by benbayard in "MacBook Air with M5"

benbayard — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:06:59 +0000

Many newer Windows laptops are now having their ability to update ram and storage removed as well. I believe the newest intel architecture introduced this, but my information might be out of date.

New comment by benbayard in "Show HN: I taught LLMs to play Magic: The Gathering against each other"

benbayard — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 19:46:10 +0000

This is super helpful, thank you!

New comment by benbayard in "Show HN: I taught LLMs to play Magic: The Gathering against each other"

benbayard — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:25:40 +0000

I was working on a similar project. I wanted a way to goldfish my decks against many kinds of decks in a pod. It would never be perfect, but enough to get an idea of: 1. How many turns did it take on average to hit 2,3,4,5,6 mana 2. How many threats did I remove? 3. How often did I not have enough card draw to keep my hand full?

I don't think there's a perfect way to do this, but I think trying to play 100 games with a deck and getting basic info like this would be super valuable.

New comment by benbayard in "Progress on TypeScript 7 – December 2025"

benbayard — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 18:21:32 +0000

It's not a stupid question, but here is the TC39 proposal to add type declarations to JS: https://github.com/tc39/proposal-type-annotations

New comment by benbayard in "Is Sora the beginning of the end for OpenAI?"

benbayard — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:40:03 +0000

Yes, Sam A said that "erotica" was coming to openAI. I don't think he's mentioned visual pornography though https://www.axios.com/2025/10/14/openai-chatgpt-erotica-ment...

New comment by benbayard in "Ultrasonic Chef's Knife"

benbayard — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 06:15:29 +0000

I think it’s a really cool product. I would happily own one. The problem I have with it is that $400 is a LOT for a chef knife. A great knife and an awesome sharpener can be easily had for $150, or $250 if you get a top of the line sharpener. That knife will last you a lifetime. How long will this knife last? What happens when the battery runs out of lifespan. What about when the motor dies? If this was closer to $250, I’d be much more likely to buy it.

New comment by benbayard in "Ultrasonic Chef's Knife"

benbayard — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 04:27:58 +0000

I am like you, but my concern with this knife is lifespan. My Japanese knives will last a lifetime. This knife has no warranty that I could find, but how long do we expect it to live? If it’s 10 years or so, I could be happy with it.

New comment by benbayard in "iPhone Air"

benbayard — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 22:47:18 +0000

It's not a problem for me to be without my phone for a few hours, as I can still text from my Mac (except for RCS + SMS messages). But yes, it's definitely a downside. I prefer the comfort and weight of a caseless phone. For me, the phone has been incredibly resilient and outside of once having a potlid drop from the ceiling on my phone, shattering the front and back of the phone (which was replaced in 3 hours, next day, when I broke the phone at 9pm).

New comment by benbayard in "iPhone Air"

benbayard — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 22:44:46 +0000

I'm sorry you had that experience. That has not been my experience, but I am on the latest iPhone so I could see that an older model might have more trouble. Hope you have a better experience in the future, it's not acceptable that's for sure. I'll keep this in mind when recommending AppleCare+ in the future.

New comment by benbayard in "Charlie Kirk killed at event in Utah"

benbayard — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 22:37:04 +0000

My original comment was getting a lot of traction originally and has been on a downward spiral since, down to 41 at the time of this.

New comment by benbayard in "Charlie Kirk killed at event in Utah"

benbayard — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 21:49:25 +0000

Why was a post about Melissa Hortman being killed flagged and removed but this post is allowed to stay up? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44279203 See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44276916

New comment by benbayard in "Minerals represent potential biosignatures in the search for life on Mars"

benbayard — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 21:35:06 +0000

That's part of the Great Filter answer to the Fermi paradox. Though, I agree, it's not really a paradox. If the great filter is true, the first filter is life forming at all. We hope that the filter is behind us and that's why intelligent life in the universe seems rare, rather than ahead of us. If life is common, but intelligent life is uncommon, that's concerning because it makes it more likely that the filter is ahead of us. Meaning, something like, once an organism has control over the whole planet there's something that prevents them from going to multiple planets.

New comment by benbayard in "iPhone Air"

benbayard — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 20:49:57 +0000

AppleCare+ is really good IMO if you're interested in caseless. I can get my screen or back replaced same day for as little as $29. On my iPhone 17 I've broken the screen twice and gotten repairs done same day.

New comment by benbayard in "Did California's fast food minimum wage reduce employment?"

benbayard — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 18:04:02 +0000

I'm glad those people are able to now support a family. At least we have that, if nothing else.

New comment by benbayard in "Did California's fast food minimum wage reduce employment?"

benbayard — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 18:00:12 +0000

You are correct that I was unable to summarize an incredibly complex tangled web of economics, sociology and politics in a few hundred words on a forum. I don't think any of us can do this. Of course it's an oversimplification. Is the comment I'm replying to also not doing this? Are you also not doing the same thing?

My only point is that this seems like an awful lot of confirmation bias. Something everyone suffers from.

New comment by benbayard in "Did California's fast food minimum wage reduce employment?"

benbayard — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 01:31:53 +0000

Is your usual breakfast spot a location with more than 60 locations? The minimum wage increase here only applied to chains with more than 60 locations. A lot of what you're describing is nation-wide. Food is more expensive everywhere. Cost of living in California is up significantly. Rents for restaurants is significantly higher as well (at least anecdotally, my wife's family restaurant has to close because they doubled the rent after their lease was up, I have heard this is incredible common).

This study by UC Berkeley attributed a 3.7% increase in food price because of the minimum wage changes. It's quite likely that food overall getting more expensive is responsible for a lot of what you're seeing.

If we can't afford to pay people in California a wage where they can live here, then maybe the economy overall isn't sustainable? A $20 minimum wage is like $2800 take home per month and in many places that can barely cover rent.